


Emotional Baggage

by Unseasonedfish



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Brainwashing, Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Catra (She-Ra) is baby, Catra becomes a soft girl, Catra doesn't go crazy, Catra gives up, Child Abuse, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Protective Adora (She-Ra), Second chapter is going to be a lot more violent than I imagined, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner's A+ Parenting, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unseasonedfish/pseuds/Unseasonedfish
Summary: While Adora has gone out in search of the weird sword, Catra gets stuck under Shadow Weaver's thumb and becomes an abused prisoner to the Horde. Adora also learns of the abuse that has been hidden from her all of her life. How can she look at Catra the same, knowing that she had broken their promise more than once?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 72





	1. Was it All a Lie?

**Author's Note:**

> She ra is owned by Dreamworks, not me.

“Adora, are you sure you’re not brain-damaged?” Catra asked before grabbing her cheeks to examine her face.

“No, I’m not brain-damaged! I just feel like the sword in the dreams is something important to me. I have to find it. I promise that I’ll be back before training,” Adora whispered, stepping away from Catra in an attempt to make a quiet escape.

“At least let me come with you, it’ll be like a fun adventure,” Catra ducked her head and looked around the corridor’s corners for guards.

“No, I have to do this by myself,” Adora stared down to the ground, “and I really don’t want you to get punished for my trip. Please, just stay here and cover me.”

“Promise that you’ll be back,” Catra pointed at her with her eyebrows furrowed, “Shadow Weaver will kill me if you don’t come back.”

Catra had a feeling deep inside her gut that something would go wrong. She should probably make Adora stay… or at least go with Adora. But Catra has to trust her right? They were best friends and on top of that she is probably going to promise to come back.

“I promise,” Adora hurriedly said, “I’ll see you in a bit, be safe.”

Adora rushed down the hallway without another word.

* * *

“Catra,” a wicked voice rasped from the other side of the locker room. Everyone around Catra froze and saluted as the Horde’s second in command floated into view.

“Shadow Weaver,” Catra answered, crossing her arms and giving the older woman an unimpressed stare.

“I need you in the Black Garnet Chambers immediately,” her voice sounded vengeful and her shadow look-alike began to disperse.

Catra let out a groan, making sure to display her faux bravado. Her guts were screaming to run far away as possible. She hadn’t seen Adora and training starts in less than 10 minutes. Members of the other squads watched her walk out the locker room in silence, where was the rest of her squad?

The walk to the Black Garnet Chamber was quieter than usual. Where were all the older soldiers at?

Catra made her way into the room, spotting the old sorceress in front of a magical crystal ball. The woman was muttering to herself violently.

“Shado-“

“Where is Adora?” Shadow Weaver cuts her off sharply.

Catra laughed, “I don’t know, why are you asking me?”

“You two have been inseparable since Adora took you under her wing. She would never leave without telling you.”

Catra cringed, Adora was originally going to leave without telling her. _What was she hiding?_ Catra did not want to think about the negatives, she had to trust Adora.

“Well, I guess she surprised both of us,” Catra turned her head to look around the room unamused.

“Silence, you worthless creature,” black tendrils locked Catra in place and sent electricity across her body. It burned the skin under her fur. Catra did not cry out in pain, she would never give Shadow Weaver the satisfaction.

“It does not matter anyways,” Shadow Weaver turned around with the flick of her wrist, sending Catra to the wall and cranking up her punishment, “I already know where she is.”

“Then why are you asking me?” Catra rasped out, trying her best to hide the pain in her voice.

“To test whether I could trust you or not, but just as always, you decide to disappoint me,” Shadow Weaver stood next to her crystal ball to examine it, “So it seems that Adora has finally realized how worthless you are.”

Catra’s ears sprung up. _What was she talking about?_

* * *

“This way!” Bow yelled as he dragged Adora by her tied wrists, Glimmer following his lead.

They reached an opening to the woods that revealed an old first ones ruin.

“How do we get in?!” Bow squeaked on the verge of tears.

“There’s something written above the doors,” Adora squinted her eyes, “Etern-“

Glimmer grabbed Adora and Bow by their shoulders and teleported them in immediately. Adora was confused at the change of location but was startled when she heard Glimmer fall to the ground with a soft thud. Bow immediately went to her side to sit her up against the wall of the ruin. Glimmer groaned in exhaustion.

“Glimmer! I told you not to waste your magic! You might need it in the future,” Bow gave the girl a drink of water before turning to Adora, “If I untie you can you help me walk her to somewhere else in the ruin. There’s gotta be something we can find to help us.”

“No, Bow,”

“Yes,” Adora cut in, holding her tied hands to Bow. “I promise.”

Bow untied her, ignoring Glimmer’s attempts to stop it from happening. Adora took Glimmer’s left side as Bow took the right side. He slid the magical sword into his bag of bows for safe keeping. The trio hobbled into a large room with multiple open doors.

“Hey look, that’s you,” Bow gasped.

Adora looked up to see a mural of a blonde woman that looked nothing like her.

“That is not me,” she looked at the young man with an expression of aloof.

“No, the bigger you with the sword!” Bow gestured to the sword on his back.

A hologram appeared, making Bow squeak in surprise.

“What is your query?”

“Um, okay. What is this place?”

“What is your query?”

Adora cut Bow off before he could answer another question.

“How do we get out of here?”

“What is your query?”

“Oh my god, this thing is broken,” Glimmer groaned, leaning her head on Bow.

“Unauthorized presence detected. Lockdown initiating.”

The door openings around them began to close, Adora took actions she spotted glowing red eyes from across the room. She forcefully dragged Bow and Glimmer to a random doorway and threw them in there before sliding herself under the falling door.

“Great. Now we’re stuck. Thanks horde scum,” Glimmer weakly glared at Adora.

“What? You just wanted me to let you two die out there?” Adora gestured to the door.

“It’s not like you would know any better!” Glimmer snapped.

“Okay! I think it’s time to stop it!” Bow yelled to catch the girls attention.

Before Adora could retort the room they were in morphed into a bright colored room. Adora heard a gasp, turning to see Glimmer walk towards a middle aged man. She looked to the side to see what appeared to be a younger version of Glimmer watching from afar behind a pillar.

Once the older Glimmer reached the man she whispered something to him and touched him. He never noticed her presence as her hand slipped through him. He glitched for a bit, it was almost like watching a videotape with a scratch on it. Just then a woman rushed in.

“Micah!” The voice yelled, causing the man to snap his head up, “Half Moon has been attacked. As of right now, our troops cannot find any survivors. We have suspicion that they have taken Cyra’s daughter.”

Micah let out a cry.

“No! We have to report there immediately!” The man turned to run across the room towards the exiting doors. The younger Glimmer stopped him on his way out.

“Daddy, where are you going?” Glimmer asked.

Micah smiled and looked at her through blurry eyes.

“I’m going to make sure Cyra and Catherine are alright. I gotta go now, I love you,” he kissed her forehead and ran out the room.

Bow then walked over to the older Glimmer and pulled her in a hug.

“That was the last time I ever spoke to him,” she let out a loud sob into his chest. Adora stood confused at the events that had just happened.

Adora did not like this at all.

“What was that?”

Bow turned to her, continuing to rub Glimmer’s back.

“This place must be able to connect with our memories. It’s a little creepy.”

The scene began to distort itself again. They were inside a library. It was much more colorful and spacious than the one at the Fright Zone.

“But Bow! You would make a wonderful historian!” A man with a mustache and short hair said. He was sitting on a couch by the fireplace.

“Plus, the ladies love a man who is intelligent. Aren’t I right, sweetie?” A man with braided hair elbowed the man next to him. This man sat in the chair next the the couch.

“I don’t know dads. I just feel like I should get out in the world and explore it for myself-“ A younger Bow was cut off. He appeared to be behind one of the book shelves, organizing the books.

The scene around them began to rapidly glitch. Bow and Glimmer grabbed a hold of Adora and held on as tight as they could in fright.

“Accessing She-Ra’s erased memories” A voice that was familiar to the hologram’s spoke.

A new setting was revealed. Adora and the other two were standing outside the Black Garnet Chamber’s doors. In front of them was a young Adora, she lookedsmall but had to be 7 years old because of the training uniform that they would have just gotten for their first year of training.

Adora narrowed her eyes and walked past the younger Adora and into the Black Garnet Chamber. Who was She-Ra and why were they in the Fright Zone? By the Black Garnet stood a younger Catra, she stared at Shadow Weaver as the woman Stared at a message on her tracker pad.

“Catra,” the name slipped out of her mouth with pure venom.

“Yes Shadow Weaver,” her tail began to swish rapidly behind her back.

“It appears that you ranked higher than Adora in the first week’s worth of simulators.”

The younger Catra beamed with happiness, he tail stopped nervously moving and came to a stop. Older Adora smiled. She never remembered Catra scoring higher than her, but seeing Catra happy made her happy.

“Yes Ma’am! I worked really hard, I wanted to impre-“ Catra smiled as she talked. Her eyes basically sparkled at the thought of being recognized.

“ENOUGH!” shadows began to surround Catra, “YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A WORTHLESS BRAT! YOU WILL NEVER BE WORTH ANYTHING TO ME OR HORDAK! IT SEEMS THAT YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR PLACE IN THE HORDE!”

Green electricity danced around Catra as she began to gasp for air. Adora’s eyes widened, she couldn’t help it when she sprinted at Shadow Weaver in an attempt to stop her.

“STOP IT!” two voices rang out at the same time.

Shadow Weaver stopped her torture to turn towards the younger blonde running to stand between her and Catra.

“I will never let you hurt her! You may be my teacher, but Catra’s my friend!”

“Oh sweet and precious Adora,” a hand was brought to the young girl’s cheek, “I’m sorry but I must not let you know of her rationalized punishments.”

With the Shadow Weaver released dark magic onto young Adora. Older Adora stood horrified as they were switched to another moment.

Bow and Glimmer walked up to her as they observed the new scene.

They were in one of the classrooms of the Fright Zone. Everyone in the class was a teenager. For what appeared on the board, Adora could not recount what the lesson was being taught. She read the word sex but her thoughts were cut off with a voice.

“Force Captain Arrea,” a teenage Adora spoke, “I would like to use a restroom break.”

Older Adora could not believe what was happening, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so why is this something that she doesn’t remember?

With a nod from the Force Captain, teenage Adora got up and walked out of the room. The group of three followed her. A couple hallways down the teenager paused and furrowed her eyebrows. There was screaming coming from the door to her right, she walked to the door, listening to what was happening. Once another scream and a muffled sentence was yelled, Adora’s eyes widened. She immediately took a few steps back and kicked the door open, she sprinted in.

The trio ran inside and stared in shock as the watched the scene before them. A teenaged Catra was strapped to a surgical bed, next to her was the creepy doctor that no one liked and two other men that no one liked. In the corner of the chair sat Shadow Weaver. The woman immediately got up.

“Adora! You should not be in here!”

The scene changed yet again. Adora’s world began to spiral. What does all of this mean?

This dimension must have been recent, there was a deep cut on Catra’s arm that she had gotten from falling a few weeks ago.

“Catra, please tell me what’s wrong! Who hurt you?!” The duplicate Adora yelled at Catra.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!” Catra yelled back, her voice was heated.

Adora wanted to sigh in relief, Catra and her never argued like this. There was no way that this could be real, right?

Catra began to sob more as she turned around and curled into herself. Her tail was wrapped around her leg as a small source of comfort. The cat girl sank to the floor and hunched over. Not only was her scar visible, but so was a bunch of red gashes across her back.

Present Adora began to back away in horror until she bumped into Bow and Glimmer. Both of them held her as her breath began to quicken.

A small mumble was heard and the holographic Adora marched up to Catra.

“What was that?”

“Shadow Weaver… she used a whip on me because I ate half of your ration bar for breakfast. She told me that she was going to stop my light punishments of food deprivation because I was not learning my lesson.” Catra looked up with tears streaming down her face.

Holographic Adora’s face spoke genuine confusion.

“That can’t be right.”

Catra’s ears flattened against her head and she lowered her head to face the floor. Her sobs began to louden.

“Shadow Weaver wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Catra then sprang up with tears and fury.

“Then why don’t you go ask her yourself! You’ve been blind to it our whole lives! You don’t even remember any of the times that you’ve walked into any of my punishments because you’ve been brainwashed! You’re such an idiot that you can’t even realize that your best friend has been getting abused for the past 12 years!” Catra stopped yelling to take deep breathes.

“Catra-,“ Holographic Adora was cut off.

“No! No! Do you actually think the Horde is a good place?! They destroy people! They destroyed ME! And-and you can’t even see the problem that’s right in front of your stupid eyes! I wish I left this place years ago, but no! I only stayed here to be with you because of your stupid little ‘nothing bad can happen as long as we’re together’ bullshit! All I’ve gotten from staying with you is pain that you don’t even recognize! So go! I dare you to go talk to Shadow Weaver!” The cat girl immediately turned away and slipped into the vents.

The holographic Adora turned to run out the room but froze, the group observing turned their heads to see Shadow Weaver standing at the doorway glaring at her.

The scene shifts again around them. Adora notices that they were in the barracks. She takes a seat on her bed, waiting for the next act to unfold before her.

“Adora, just leave me alone,” a voice groaned. Catra walked in with her hands rubbing her eyes in frustration, another Adora was right behind her.

“No, you have been avoiding me for the past week Catra. Why are you doing this? Is it Scorpia?”

Adora felt her inside churn at the mention of Scorpia. Adora had met the girl a few days after Catra got the deep wound in her arm. Catra began to hangout with Scorpia after meeting her in the infirmary and Adora couldn’t been more jealous if she tried.

“No, Adora! You don’t understand. I don’t even know why you care!” Catra pulled at her hair as if she was going insane.

“Because I love you!” The holograph duplicate yelled, freezing everyone in the room including the three intruders watching.

“Stop it. You don’t get to lie about that,” Catra turned around, her hands trembled. “You don’t love me, not like I love you.”

The holograph strutted towards the other girl and turned her around. Holographic Adora smashed Catra’s lips into her own. Catra slowly moved her arms around her Adora and moved closer. Adora watched from the other side of the room in total heartbreak. If these were actually real, why didn’t she remember them.

The holograms broke the kiss and the Adora spoke.

“I don’t love you? I’ve been crazy about you for as long as I could remember. I haven’t been able to think straight since you began to hangout with Scorpia. I love you so much, I can’t stand the thought of losing you in any way.”

“Adora. What are you doing giving that kind of attention to a worthless girl?” everyone turned their heads to see Shadow Weaver standing in the hallway outside the barracks. “Catra, your punishment will be worse than you can ever imagine.”

A hand was lifted and Adora, Bow, and Glimmer were transported to a roof top of the Fright Zone.

“Oh my fucking god when is this going to be over,” Glimmer groaned.

They looked to the left to see Adora talking to Catra as she examined Adora’s force captain badge.

The trio walked over to them. Catra sighed and laid her back on the railing.

“I don’t understand why she hates me”

_Oh no. I remember this._

“I highly doubt that she hates you,” Adora smiles softly at Catra.

_Stop._

“Yes, she does! She won’t even let me out on the field,” Catra groans, “I guess life is good when you’re a people pleaser.”

_Don’t do it._

The other Adora seemed to take offense to the statement.

“Well maybe if you weren’t such a disrespectful brat, you would actually be treated better.”

Catra glared at her, she stood up and threw the badge in her face.

“Take your stupid badge. It’s not like I care.”

The cat girl turned and left, leaving Adora to think about what she said. Everything in the world began to glitch rapidly.

Finally they were transferred to the main room. The hologram from earlier stood before them, staring directly at Adora.

Adora stared at the ground, a feeling of numbness began to take over her body. She should have never left Catra's side.

“She-Ra, you have people that you need to save. Will you fight for the safety of Etheria? Will you fight for the honor of Grayskull?”

A door opened behind them, it lead to the outside world. Adora trailed behind Glimmer and Bow, her heart was hurting and she couldn't help but feel guilt.

Glimmer held the sword in front of her face, Adora looked up.

"Well. I guess this is yours. If you really are She-Ra, then we want you to help us protect Etheria."

* * *

“Okay, if we’re going to go into town during a festival, we’re going to have to change… this.”

Adora looked down at her uniform and frowned.

“What’s wrong with this?”


	2. Betraying the Horde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra suffers violent and mental abuse. Adora betrays the Horde and makes plans with Bright Moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just to let y'all know. I'll be writing chapters when I feel like it. This won't be a scheduled fanfic, cause I'm REALLY bad at those. Y'all are just lucky I want to do this instead of HW.

“Okay, this is the best day of my life,” Adora groaned, shoving a majority of different foods in her mouth.

“I can’t believe you never had birthdays in the Horde,” Bow grabbed his hair as if he was going to pull it out.

“It’s just something we didn’t have,” Adora shrugged, throwing a red ball in her mouth and rapidly drinking whatever was in the cup. She stuck out her tongue and tried to wipe off the taste.

“Yeah, watch out for those. They’re really hot,” Bow then leaned in with a sly grin, “So, who was your girlfriend? You haven’t talked about her once since we left the ruins.”

Adora had two internal reactions. She wanted to breakdown and cry out of the confusion and mere thought that Catra had been abused by Shadow Weaver after all these years. Another part of her wanted to gush to Bow everything about Catra. She stared down at the ground awkwardly, attempting to mask all of her internal emotions at the subject.

“Yeah, Catra. She’s been my best friend forever,” Adora began to rub the back of her neck. She was trying to hold back tears at this point. “I have always liked Catra. I’ve always felt like she had a space in my heart that was meant for her. I don’t even know if those holograms were real. How am I supposed to look at her the same, knowing that she might have put up with this treatment all these years and her only friend turns a cold shoulder to her because of their own stupid ego.”

Adora began to sob, surrounding civilians began to look their way. Bow needed to get her away from here now and immediately to clear her mind.

“O-kay! Let’s go somewhere else and not out of the public’s eyes,” he grabbed an emotional Adora and made their way to the animal section, “Wow, look at that horse. What do you think?”

Adora looked up and froze. It was one of the most beautiful things that she had seen in her life.

“You can touch it, I think it’ll make you feel better,” he pushed her towards the horse.

Adora frantically wiped her tear filled eyes and then slowly reached towards the beast. It’s fur was soft, but not as soft as Catra’s. The thought stung, but she made herself focus solely on the horse.

“I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the Horde.”

* * *

“Ahhh!” Catra cried out in pain.

“You’re worthless! You should have known your place ages ago! I should have killed you a long time ago!” Shadow Weaver held a blunt baton in her hand.

The sorceress took another swing at the woman’s stomach. Catra began to gag, the treatment had made her sick earlier. Adora’s words made the treatment worth throwing up for. _She’ll never come back to the Horde._

Tears were now rapidly falling from her eyes. She’s given up now. She just has to pray the Shadow Weaver will finally be done using her as a toy and put her out of her misery. Screw being strong, screw Shadow Weaver, screw the Horde, screw everything.

After all she’s been through. She can’t believe that Adora finally gave up on her. She’s so close to the end, she just wants to reach out to it and grab it. Physically she can’t. She was tied to this stupid bench with the stupid witch standing above her.

“Just do it already,” Catra choked out.

“As much pleasure as I would take for that. I feel as if I would like to watch you suffer. While your old squadmates are out retrieving Adora, I’ve called Dr. Scotch to come do a special treatment on you.”

Catra wanted to sob harder, but nothing came out. Had she already run out of tears to cry? She didn’t care about looking pathetic or weak anymore.

She couldn’t stand the thought of that creepy old man touching her with the wicked bitch of the Horde standing off the side in silence.

“Oh, you don’t have to think of it as that kind of treatment. We’ve planned something special for today.” Catra could hear the smile in Shadow Weaver’s voice.

The Black Garnet Chamber’s doors opened, revealing the man of her nightmares. Something was different, he usually came to her empty handed. Now he has a box of something in his right hand. He smiles wickedly at her as he approaches and caresses her cheek. Catra shudders in fear.

“Ah yes, my wonderful magicat,” he turns to Shadow Weaver, “You know magicats are quite unique humanoids. They have so many advantages over the normal civilian. They are able to see in the dark, amazing smell, able to sense danger just around the corner. The only species known to properly ever mate with first ones. But do you know what the most fascinating thing about them is?” he turns back to Catra and lightly strokes her hand, “Their claws.”

Catra didn’t understand what was going on. The man turned back to his box and began to shuffle through it.

“What’s going on?” Catra’s voice shook.

Dr. Scotch turned to her with a pair of surgical instruments.

“I hope you don’t use your claws often, but it appears that at this point we can’t give my dearest magicat harm herself to get out of punishment.”

_Oh no._

* * *

“What! I thought Elberon was a fortified rebellion stronghold, not a civilian town!” Adora frantically looked around for some sort of answer. Gun shots blared from all directions. The Horde was turning the beautiful town into a no mans land in seconds.

“Is that what they told you?! Wake up! Didn’t the holograms in the ruin give you an idea of what the Horde was!” Glimmer shouted.

“I’ve gotta go stop this! I won’t let anyone get hurt under my watch!” Dang it, what was the phrase that woman said? “For the honor of Grayskull!”

Light surrounded Adora, turning her into the scary giant lady. She ran right into the center of the mess.

“Adora!” A voice shouted.

Lonnie was running to her.

“Why do you look like that!? What did they do to you!?”

Adora shook her head.

“No time for answers. We have to stop this! There has to be a mistake, this is a civilian town, not a rebellion fortress!”

Lonnie stared at her with a frown.

“I knew Catra said you were stupid, but are you seriously this dumb,” Lonnie pointed to all of the houses, “All of the videos we watched in War ED were how to successfully ruin a town. How did you not know what the Horde was actually doing?!”

Adora froze in shock. _Was all of it really true? Had she been lied to all of her life?_ A voice then spoke at the back of her mind. _Accessing She-Ra's memories._

 _Was she actually She-Ra? Were they ALL actually true?_ Anger began to bubble. _And I don’t even remember them?!_

“How can you support this?” Adora growled lowly.

“Because it’s all we’ve ever known! We don’t know these people! Why should we care?!”

“Because innocent lives are being taken and I’m not going to stand by that! If you won’t help me stop this then screw you!” Adora ran at the closest tanks and crushed them. She knocked out most of the soldiers with a force she didn’t know she had.

Within 15 minutes Horde troops were scrambling to escape. Adora turned to see Lonnie running away. Adora caught up to her just in time and slammed her against a tree.

“Where is Catra?!” her voice shook in rage.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. Shadow Weaver told me something about some big punishment she’d be receiving for your escape, though. Good luck being a hero after knowing you could have stopped this.”

Adora’s She-Ra form dropped to her normal one.

Was her heart breaking?

“What?”

“You heard me.”

With a kick to the stomach, Adora was on the ground and Lonnie made her escape.

* * *

Catra woke up with a cough. She wasn’t surprised to see that her fingers weren’t wrapped up in gauze. They were being displayed in all of their raw glory.

She remembered passing out in pain during the procedure. If Shadow Weaver did want to keep her alive, that would probably explain the white disinfectant cream that was spread out on the wounds where her claws used to be. It hurt. A lot actually.

She was scared to move in any way, afraid that the slightest calculated mistake would cause her pain that she couldn’t bear at the moment.

“I see that you’re awake, Wildcat.”

Catra turned her head and was grateful to see Scorpia standing on the other side of a see-through door with a worried expression on her face.

“Yeah.”

Scorpia opened the door and closed it behind her.

“I’m going to lift you up against the wall. Try not to scream. I want to help you and we can’t let anyone else know that I’m doing this.”

Catra nodded. She held her moans of pain in well as Scorpia pressed her against the wall as softly as possible.

“Okay,” Scorpia turned around to grab… a bowl of soup? “Open wide, Wildcat.”

“Why are you doing this? You could get yourself killed for treason.”

Scorpia blushed and rubbed the back of her neck.

“I know that we’ve only known each other for like 2 weeks, but I just feel like there’s something about you that’s... just special. I want to keep you safe.” Scorpia held a spoon in front of her face, “My mothers usually make this for me when I'm sick. I know you probably haven’t ate this before, but trust me. It’s a lot better than the gray ration bars.”

Scorpia held the spoon up to Catra’s mouth and allowed her to take a bite. Scorpia’s heart stuttered slightly when Catra’s eyes beamed at her.

“Give me more right now, before I scratch you.”

Scorpia laughed and put some more into her mouth. After about 15 minutes it was all gone.

Catra let out a disappointed groan.

“Why didn’t you bring more?”

“I’m sorry. To be honest, I wasn’t even expecting you to eat that.”

Catra scoffed playfully.

“Whatever.”

The two girls stared at each other for a few seconds, waiting for the other to speak up.

“Oh, I can’t believe I forgot about this when I came in!” Scorpia pulled gauze out of her pockets, “I don’t think I can get these on you, but I’m going to order Kyle to come in here and wrap your hands up.”

She set a small bottle of anti-infection cream on the ground with the gauze.

“Thank you, Scorpia. I really appreciate it,” despite the situation, Scorpia’s kindness brought a smile to Catra’s face, “Do you think you could bring me some more food later?

“Yeah, yeah, Wildcat. I’ll bring you something new everyday. I gotta go, I have a meeting with Lord Hordak.”

Scorpia waved goodbye, turned around and left the cell. Leaving Catra by herself again.

* * *

Glimmer and Bow transported next to Adora cheering.

“She-Ra is back to save Etheria!” Glimmer cheered before looking down at Adora, “Oh…”

“They have Catra and they’re hurting her,” Adora cried into the ground, beginning to curl herself in a ball, “all because I left the Fright Zone for a few hours.”

“Woah, hey, hey, hey,” Bow ran over and put his hand on her shoulder, “Maybe the Rebellion can get to her before she gets hurt too much.”

“Really?” Adora sniffled.

“Yeah!” Glimmer enthusiastically claimed, “We need you just as much as it appears you need us. Come back to Bright Moon with us. We’ll talk to my mom about a potential rescue mission!”

Adora didn’t know what to say. She felt like she should be on her way back to the Fright Zone to save Catra immediately. But how could she successfully carry out a rescue mission just with one person? She looked up to see Glimmer’s broad smile and outstretched arm. Maybe they could help.

“Okay,” Adora reached up and shook her arm.

* * *

“And how should I know that your loyalty is true?” Queen Angella questioned.

The woman was much smaller than Adora expected, but that didn’t mean she was medium sized either. Adora did admit to herself that she was very much intimidated by the angelic woman. She kneeled before the queen.

“I-“

“Angella!” a woman with dark hair ran into the room, “Juliet informed me that you were having a trial with a Horde soldier, would you like my truth spell?”

Angella smiled at the woman.

“That would be very convenient. Thank you for the offer, here is our defendant.” She gestured towards Adora.

Casta walked towards Adora and scribbled a spell carefully before pushing it towards Adora. The girl braced herself for impact. The spell passed through her body like a hologram, it was nothing like Shadow Weaver’s spells.

“It works,” Casta stated before walking to the side.

“Now. Answer my question.”

“I have a best friend that is in danger right now as we speak. I am asking the Rebellion to help me rescue her out of the Fright Zone and away from Shadow Weaver for good,” A small gasp came from Casta, "My answer is if you help me save her and give her a _safe_ place to stay in Bright Moon, then I will do anything that you ask of me.”

Angella nodded in acknowledgment, before turning to Casta.

“Castapella, you are 100 percent sure that this spell was correct?”

“Yes it was, Angella.”

Angella stared at the ground. _Is it really worth using that many resources to rescue on one person?_ Angella thought, _Well, maybe for the alliance with She-Ra and another potential rebel it is._

“Very well,” She turned to Adora and commanded, “rise.”

Adora rose to her feet as Angella walked down from her throne to examine the younger girl.

“Bright Moon accepts your alliance. We do not have enough members to carry out a rescue at this moment and it is too late to call an emergency meeting with the Alliance. Get some rest for tomorrow and we will meet at sunrise tomorrow. Glimmer, Bow, show her to her room. Welcome She-Ra, Princess of Power.”

* * *

“I can’t believe how great that went!” Glimmer cheered, dancing around the room with Bow, “I’m so glad that Aunt Casta showed up with her truth spell! Once we save Catra, the Rebellion will be unstoppable!”

Adora gave a small smile to her two new friends before staring down at the ground with another heartbreaking feeling beginning to bubble in her stomach.

“I wonder what she’s doing right now.”

A hand landed on her shoulder, she looked up to see Glimmer staring back at her with an empathic smile.

“We will get her. She will be safe.”

“I know, but after those ‘memories’ today I feel like I need to do anything to help her. I just don’t know what to do,” she tangled her hand through her hair poof, “I can’t stand the thought of losing her.”

“Yeah, like Glimmer said. We _will_ get her back to you.” Bow laid a hand on Glimmer’s shoulder and gave her a smile.

Glimmer yawned, causing the other two to yawn in response.

“Okay,” she laughed, “I’m going to go to bed now, good night.”

“Wait,” Adora blushed in embarrassment, “Can you two sleep in here with me tonight? I’ve never slept by myself before. Catra usually sleeps by my feet.”

The two looked at each other and smile widely.

“Sleepover!”

* * *

“Wake up brat,” a voice spoke.

“Mrrp?” Catra lifted her head, it fell to the side to see the woman she’s grown to despise all of her life, “What?”

“I just came here to remind you of your failures, beast,” she held a tracker pad up to her face, “Adora seems to have already replaced you. She even recognizes that they are not _pets_.”

Shadow Weaver showed Catra the screen. Laying on some bed, Adora cuddled with the guy she saw before and some random girl with pink hair.

“Why should I care about this?” her voice shook. Jealousy began to seep through her veins. She was too tired to recognize it.

“As you can see, they are not at her feet, as you used to be. Adora sees them as equals, just as she never saw you.”

_This isn’t true don’t fall for it. Adora can't actually feel like that._

“Just shut up already.”

* * *

“Good morning everyone,” Queen Angella took a seat, “We will begin this meeting with statement from Princess Adora.”

Angella gestured to Adora and sat down. Adora stood up stiffly and looked at the other two princesses.

“Uh, um, hi,” Adora cringed to herself, “I found out yesterday that I was She-Ra.”

Netossa and Spinerella seemed to perk up at the mention of Etheria’s savior, Adora grew a little more confidence from the reaction.

“I will provide you any sort of assistance, as long as you help me rescue my best friend from the Fright Zone.”

Netossa hummed in acknowledgement before turning to Angella.

“She had a truth spell on her yesterday?”

“Yes, her intentions seem to be innocent. I have accepted her to the Alliance. This will be a meeting about creating ideas to build the Rebellion and forming a rescue plan.”  
  
“Why should we waste these materials on a single rescue mission?” Netossa asked.

Adora clenched her fists, her face contorted to a glare. Catra was worth everything.

“We need She-Ra’s help. This mission will be the mission to seal the alliance between She-Ra and Bright Moon. We will also be bringing in a new Rebellion member.”

Adora turned to Angella.

“You promised me that she would be safe.”

“I didn’t promise anything. However, your friend will be safe here. There are plenty of jobs around the castle to keep her busy. She does not have to fight in any way, but she will be with the Rebellion.”

Adora sighed and sit down. She turned to glare at Netossa. Adora did not like the older woman’s attitude about Catra’s mission.

“We need the Princess Alliance!” Glimmer announced.

“Glimmer, that is far out of our reach. We have to come up with a-“

“Is it though?” Adora asked, “I mean if the Horde is effecting everyone, it can’t be that hard to gather allies, right?”

As soon as the question was asked an emergency message was brought up on the meeting table’s hologram.It was a cry of help from the princess of Plumeria, they needed food and basic living necessities.

“There it is! That can be our first mission! Please, mom! We need more members!” Glimmer practically begged from across the table.

Angella put her face in her hands and groaned before looking up.

“Fine. You three,” gesturing towards Bow, Adora, and Glimmer, “will be delivering resources to Plumeria. NO FIGHTING. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the three spoke at once.

“Spinerella and Netossa, you will be searching for the weak points in the Fright Zone. If we actually manage to gather members, we will need to go through with the rescue as quick as possible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still waiting for my salad to get tossed.
> 
> Come back for more suffering next time. 👍

**Author's Note:**

> Dang, I need to go to Olive Garden to get my salad tossed. 
> 
> Dang everyone said 🦗 during the memories.


End file.
